Keyamo: If we have to float national carrier, it must be fully Nigerian-owned

Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace development, says should Nigeria float a national carrier, it must be wholly owned by Nigerians.

Speaking during an interview on Arise Television on Tuesday, Keyamo said the national carrier must be structured to benefit the Nigerian economy.

The minister criticised the previous Nigerian Air project which he said would have placed control of Nigeria’s aviation sector in the hands of a foreign government.

He warned that such an arrangement was detrimental to Nigeria’s economy.

“If we have to float a national carrier, it has to be wholly Nigerian. It may not be the Nigerian state but wholly Nigerian for the benefit of Nigeria with all the benefits coming to the Nigerian economy,” Keyamo said.

‘ALL PROFITS WERE GOING TO ADDIS ABABA’

Keyamo highlighted flaws in the Ethiopian Airlines deal, revealing that Nigeria would have paid $112 million over three years for wet leases, without any foreign direct investment (FDI) in return.

He dismissed claims of lost FDI, noting that profits would have gone to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“One of those facilitators of the Nigerian Air, one American man has been jumping from one station to the other crying that Nigeria lost foreign direct investment and all that,” he said.

“In those days we call it a local parlance. What direct foreign investment? all the profits were going to Addis Ababa anyway.

“Those planes they were bringing… we were bringing them on wet leases and we were going to pay for them. We were going to pay $112 million over a period of three years. Nigerian state will pay to Addis Ababa.

“There was no firm agreement to build a hub here. It was bad from A to Z.”

Keyamo also raised concerns about Ethiopian Airlines’ potential dominance in Nigeria’s bilateral air service agreement (BASA) routes including high-value destinations such as London, New York, Paris, and Johannesburg.

‘NIGERIA AIR DEAL LEFT KEY POSITIONS FOR ETHIOPIAN CITIZENS’

Keyamo said the agreement reserved key executive positions within Nigerian Air for Ethiopian nationals, leaving no leadership roles for Nigerians.

“That is scary, that a foreign government is coming to take over all of those routes,” the minister said.

“Not only that, the executives, the major positions in Air Nigeria, I’m not saying all, but the major one, CEO, Director of Operation finance, all of them were reserved for Ethiopians, not Nigerians.

“The CEO of a Nigerian air is an Ethiopian not a Nigerian. That is scary.”

He said the Ethiopian workers were exempted from paying taxes to the Nigerian government under the agreement.

The minister said Ethiopian Airlines was also granted permission to operate local flights between Lagos and Abuja, posing a significant threat to Nigeria’s domestic aviation industry.

In 2023, the ministry of aviation, under Hadi Sirika, former minister, unveiled Nigeria Air — three days before the end of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

The development had elicited concerns among stakeholders nationwide over the ownership arrangement which gave Ethiopian Airlines a 49 percent equity stake.

The federal government had a 5 percent equity, while a consortium of three Nigerian investors had 46 percent.

Reacting to the deal in June 2023, the house of representatives asked the federal government to suspend the operations of Nigeria Air, describing it as “a fraud”.

In August 2023, Keyamo announced that the national carrier project was suspended till further notice.

A federal high court sitting in Lagos state had also nullified the sale of the equity stake in Nigeria Air to Ethiopian Airlines.